Box or receptacle



g n ing 0. WOODWARD.

BOX 0R RECEPTACLE.

APPLICATION mu) OCT. 22, 1911.

Hal! Lg WITNESSES Z. M W 4 Patented May 17,1921.

H15 ATTDRNEY UNITED sTATEs PATENT OFFICE. v

oscan woonwann, or BABYLON, NEW Yoax, assxcnoa 'IO nnmneron 'IYPE- warren serum, or ILION, NEW max, A CORPORATION or NEW YORK,

BOX 03 REOEPTAGLE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 17', 1921.

' To all whom it may concern:

- Be it known that I, Oscar Wooowmtmcitizen of the United States, and resident of Bab lon, in the county of Suffolk and State of ew' York, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Boxes or Receptacles of which the followin isa specification. My resent invention re ates to boxes, re ceptacfes or containers, and its princ1pal object is to provide a new and improved box,

receptacle or container, and one which is both low in cost and simple and easy of manufacture.

To the above .and other ends my present invention consists in the features of construction, combinations of device s and arrangements of parts hereinafter descrlbed and particularl ointed out in the claims. I

My improved box or container was especially designed for ribbon spools such as are used on typewriters, but the invention 18 not restricted to such use.

In carryin out the invention in the present instance Tprovide two disks which may be of pasteboard or the like and which constitute the end pieces or portions of the box, and a bod portion whic maybe of flexible. or bendab e metal and which is contractile or yielding, said body .portion being in the form of a band that is preferably provided with grooves, flanges or shouldersnear its top and bottom that are adapted to receive the peripheral portions of the disks, the band when contracted clam ing the disks, or maintaining them a de nite distance apart. Lockin devices which are preferably a part of the and itself andwhich may be formed by striking up a flexible tongue from one end of the band that is ada ted to a hole near the other'end of the ban are provided for holding the band in looking or contracted position so that it will exert peripheral frictional action on theutop, and bottom pieces, or end disks.

My invention will be more particularly described in connection with the accompanyini drawings, whereinigure 1 is a perspective view of a box embodying the preferred form of my invention.

Fi 2 is a plan View of the box, part of said hex being broken away.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary cross sectional view showing the locking devices in operative engagement. 65 Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the band or body portion of the box.

g. 5 is a perspective view of an end disk. Fig. 6 1s a transverse sectional view taken on a plane represented by the dotted line a: a: in Fig. 2 and looking in the direction .of the arrows at said line.

F i 7 is a view corresponding to Fig. 6 but s owing a modification.

Referring first to the preferred for'm of the box or receptacle illustrated in Fi 1 to 6 1nclusive, said box 1 comprises a ho y portion and separate or separable end portions or top and bottom portions. The body'portion in the present instance is in the form of a circular flexible band or ring of metal, which may be sprin metal, and. is desig- 'nated as a whole by t e reference numeral 2, while the end portlons may be disks 3 and 4' of pasteboard or the like. These disks as illustrated are duplicates. One of them, shown detached in Fig. 5, is designated as 3, that is the top disk, but it will be understood that the bottom disk 4 may be, and preferably is, of thesame character and construction. In Fig. 4 the band 2 is shown expanded rior to assembling the several arts of the ox. It is intended when the di s 3 and 4 have been introduced in place to draw the ends of the band 2' to ether so as to peripherall enga e the dis s and thereafter the ban is he] in position so as to co-act with the disks around their entire peripheries, the band being thus held by controllin or locking means. In order to hold the (fisks at a fixed or redetermined distance apart, and so that they cannot move either away from or toward each other, I preferably pro vide the band 2 with circumferential grooves 5 and 6 which provide seats for the disks 3 and 4 rei pectively. These grooves project outward rom the face of the band, formin flanges or shoulders 7 and 8-, the flanges preventin the disks from workin outward. and the %anges '8 preventing t em from working inward toward each other. The middle portion of one end of the band 2 extends beyond the grooves 5 and 6, as indicated at 9, the portion 9 being formed with a hole or slotway 10. A tongue 11 is struck 105 out from the opposite end of the band 2 between the grooves 5 and 6, this tongue being bendable and bein adapted to cooperate with the hole 10 a ter the disks have been seated in the moves and the band has been contracted, t is cooperation holding the band in engagement with the disks and maintaining the parts of the box in operative relationshi In other words, the tongue 11 and tiecoiiperating o ening 10 provide locking devices for he din the parts of the box set or locked in fixe relationshi It Will be seen that there has been revided a knockdown box which is simp e in construction, is made of comparatively cheap materials, and is easy to assemble, it being only necessary to arrange the disks withm the grooves, draw the ends of the band together, ass the ton us 11 through the hole 10, an then bendt e tongue back toward the right, as in Figs. 3 and 4. Figs. 1, 2 and 3 show the locking device or tongue 11 in o aerative position. As has been stated, w ile the box ma be employed as a container for any suitab e object, it was articularly designed for typewriter rib on spools, such a spool being shown in Fig. 6 wherein it is designated by the numeral 12. Of course it will be understood that rior to completely assembling the parts of t e box, the ribbon spool or other object to be contained is. arranged within it. For example after the bottom iece or-disk 4 is inserted within the band t e ribbon spool 12 ma be placed within the box, resting on the ottom piece, after which the to piece 3 is inserted and the band contracts and looked, as has been explained. Of course any other series of steps may be adopted which results in assembling the box with the s 001 in it. The ribbon spool is ordinaril inc osed in a tinfoil wrapper or cover whic for the sake of clearness,,has been omitted from the drawing. The box shown is adaptedto ribbon spools of various widths, as will be plain from Fig. 6; in other words a spool narrower than the one shown may be boxed as readily as the s 001 12, as may also a spool of greater wi th. There are in ordinar use three different widths of ribbon an the spools carrying them are of corres ending widths. Preferably my knockown box or container is made in one width, which is of such dimensions as readily to accommodate the widest ribbon spool, and it will be plain from what has been said that the narrower sEools ma be equally well accommodated, t e only ifi'erence being that there will be more vacant space in the box in such cases. However, whatever the space between the faces of the spool flanges as compared with that between the inner faces of the top and bottom of the box the flanges 8 will revent the said top and bottom from being isplaced toward each other, while of necessar to provide a different box course the outer flanges or shoulders 7 will revent outward displacement. The outer aces of the box parts have been shown plain in the drawing but it will be understood that they afford convenient surfaces for advertising or descri tive matter.

he modi cation shown in Fi 7 illustrates a box comprisin a band 1 and end ieces 14 and 15 said box containing a ribon s 001 17. The band 13 generally resembles t e band 2 of the preferred form, being flexible and having a locking ton us 16 near one end and a cooperating be e near the other end. The band 18, however, is plain throughout its circumference, not bein provided with grooves but having its an portions bent inward to provide flanges 13. These flanges prevent the to and bottom from being displaced outwar y away from each other but do not )ositively prevent the said top and bottom rom bein pressed in toward each other and a ainst the flanges of the ribbon spool 17. o prevent this only the. Jeripheral friction exerted by the band on t e peripheries of the disks 14 and 15 can be relied on. It is apparent of course that this friction may be overcome by'an inward pressure of en cient force, whlch pressure the box ends are not at all unlikely to receive, and consequently this form of the box is not well adapted to narrower ribbon slpools than the one, 17 illustrated. The ilustrated ribbon spool 17 substantially fills the interior of t e Fig. 7 box and its flanges consequently prevent inward displacement of the (llSkB 14 and 15. While the Fig. 7 form of my invention possesses some of the advantages of the preferred form, it will be apparent that it is not well adapted to more than one width of ribbon spool, and that it will be desirable if not for each width 0 ribbon spool, the boxes varying in width or depth in corres ondence with the ribbon spools for which t ey were designed.

Some of the advantages of my knockdown box have already been set forth. Heretofore it has been customary in the trade to provide square tin boxes or receptacles for the ribbon s ools for typewriting machines. My nove knock-down box is much cheaper than the boxes heretofore in use and may be readily manufactured in the factories *which supply the ribbon spools and ribbons. Moreover, it has been customary heretofore to ship the tin boxes containing ribbon spools in packages of a dozen, each dozen boxes being contained in a comfiirativel expensive carton of pasteboard. y nove circular boxes are well adapted to be ship ed in ordinary cylindrical mailing tubes 0 suitable diameter which readily accommodate up to a dozen of these boxes and which are comparatively inex ensive. The knock-down character of the oxes further results in economy of storage space in warerooms.

Various changes besides those specified may be made without departing from my 5 invention.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A knockdown box consisting of two heads and a flexible binding strip which constitutes the body of the box, the ends of the binding strip being provided with locking devices which when operative enable said strip to exert a clamping efl'ect around said heads, said binding strip having annular seats which receive the heads and maintain them a fixed distance apart.

2. A knockdown box for ribbon spools or the like consisting of two circular pasteboard disks and a cooperating band of metal,

said band constituting the body of the box and being formed with two grooves spaced apart that provide seats for the peripheral portions of said disks, said band beinrg provided near its ends with interlocking catching devices that positively lock the band over, and clamp it around, the disks.

3. A circular knockdown box for ribbon spools consisting only of two disks and a cooperating annular metal band provided at its ends with catching devices, said band constituting the entire body of the box and being contracted to grip all around the peripheral edge portions only of said disks to maintain them in set relationship with the band as the result solely of interlocking 5 said catching devices.

4. A knockdown box for ribbon spools or the like comprising only two circular plane disks and a cooperating band of metal, said band being formed with two grooves spaced apart that provide seats .for the eripheral portions of said disks, said band near its ends havin fastening devices which cooperate posltively to lock the band around the disks and hold them permanently spaced apart a definite distance.

Si ned at the borough of Manhattan,city of ew York, in the county of New York and State of New York, this 19th day of October, A. D. 1917.

OSCAR WOODWARI).

Witnesses:

E. M. WELLS, CHAnLns E. SMITH. 

